BCI Safety

Definition

BCI Safety examines prevention, detection and management of physical, cognitive, psychological and functional BCI harms within the broader domain of the design, validation and long-term use of brain–computer interfaces and neurotechnologies.

Why this matters

Failures concerning prevention, detection and management of physical, cognitive, psychological and functional BCI harms can cause physical or psychological harm, loss of function, privacy invasion, identity compromise, exclusion, coercion or irreversible impact on human agency.

Research questions

Under which conditions can prevention, detection and management of physical, cognitive, psychological and functional BCI harms be delivered, measured or protected reliably, and how do outcomes vary by person, device, duration, context and governance controls?

Hypotheses

A transparent, safety-bounded and person-centred approach to bci safety, combining validated measurement, informed consent, privacy and security controls, human oversight and longitudinal monitoring, will improve benefit–risk outcomes compared with opaque or technology-centred approaches.

Proposed methods

controlled BCI task testing; signal-quality analysis; calibration studies; longitudinal cohort follow-up; usability and accessibility testing; human-factors analysis; adverse-event monitoring; expert and affected-user review; reproducibility testing; methods adapted specifically to BCI Safety

Stakeholders and beneficiaries

BCI users; patients; clinicians; carers; neuroscientists; rehabilitation specialists; device manufacturers; regulators; accessibility advocates